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Competence in research is an attractive feature that should be established for all practitioners because specialists with training and expertise in research will recognize strategic thinking, interpretation, and synthesizing more easily. Hence, this study aimed to describe the knowledge competency among junior high school mathematics teachers on the research processes applied on the contents of the various sections of a quantitative research paper. The descriptive method of research has been used to characterize the knowledge competence of 108 junior high school teachers on the research processes. The study used the research skill test, which was a researcher-made instrument, consisting of 50 multiple choice items with four choices each. The instrument went through the process of validity and reliability analysis obtaining a good result of 0.81. This study revealed that they were "novice" or had achieved the learning level of competency on the research processes applied on the contents of the different parts of a quantitative research paper. More so, they identified that interpretation of statistical results was a challenging part of doing a research paper.

The purpose of this exploratory, mixed-methods study was to investigate the relationship between nontraditional undergraduate students' curiosity and their experiences researching a topic. The author collected and analyzed survey data and annotated bibliography rubric scores from 59 students at a private, liberal arts university and conducted in-depth interviews to gather a fuller picture of the students' curiosity. Based on the study's findings, librarians and professors should create opportunities for students to select research topics to which they have a personal connection while intentionally offering supportive feedback to students as they refine their topics to reduce anxiety and frustration.

The present paper investigates one aspect of questionable research practices relating to Arabic L1 learners of foreign languages, namely the use of statistics. The objective of the paper is to argue that reproducible research requires adopting wise practices in linguistics and that the excessive focus on quantification does not seem to serve this purpose. Statistical significance tests in quantitative research are routinely used in linguistic inquiry as well as language teaching and learning studies with a view to supporting the relevant explanatory insights in linguistics. In this article, I will expose the misuse of statistics by doctoral students in English departments of Morocco working on Arabic L1 learners' data, by highlighting some practices that are at odds with international good practices in academic research in linguistics. I will take stock of the current questionable practices in this regard to dispel some of the misunderstanding about the use of statistics which is now gaining grounds lest this becomes an orthodoxy. I will argue that research on Arabic L1 learners' data should be focused more on exploration and discovery, as well as the validation of epistemological insights than on mere descriptive quantification geared to hypothesis verification. These areas of focus constitute the crux of academic research in linguistics, but they seem to be lost in statistics in doctoral students' theses. Recommendations and solutions are provided for enhancing transparency and improving reproducibility of doctoral research outcomes to advance theory building and the delivery of new research lines in linguistics as well as to avoid the risk of research waste, in line with the requirements of open science.

Background Research theses can have a significant impact on the development of applied sciences, especially when their results are published. Objective This study aims to determine publication rate of papers extracted from the medical residency and master’s degree theses of Guilan University of Medical Sciences (GUMS) during 2008-2018. Methods This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The data were collected from the medical residency and master’s degree theses of GUMS from 2008 to 2018. Then, they were searched in international and national databases according to the title, keywords, and names of supervisors, advisors, and students. Results Of 774 theses, 449 (58 %) papers had been extracted and published in journals indexed by ISI/ PubMed (41.2%), Scopus (11.8%), BIOSIS, Chemical Abstract, and Embase (0.44%) and others (46.56%). Most of them (98.66%) were original research. Moreover, in 383(85.3%) of the theses, there was no statistician or data advisor. The median time from defending theses to the publication of a paper from them was two years. Conclusion The publication of papers extracted from the theses of GUMS has increased, and more than 50% of them have been published in journals indexed by ISI, PubMed, and Scopus. However, the factors associated with the publication of papers need to be surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the results of an archival desk-study that analyzed worksheets produced by four students using ChatGPT as a coach. ChatGPT is a Generative Pre-Trained Large Language model that can write comprehensively in various languages and styles. It was discovered that it could pass university level physics exams and perform at the level of a third-year medical student. Fourth-year students in Information Technology are required to produce a 3000-to-5000-word research report as part of the requirements for graduation, and their first meeting of the year consists of a workshop following the GROW (Goal, Reality, Opportunities, Will) coaching process. Logistical considerations in this predominantly e-learning based course prevented such teamwork. The two-month-old ChatGPT, however, presented an opportunity to determine the extent to which a chatbot could be used as a peer coach. This paper reports on the outcome of an exercise that was given to students as an introduction to their research methodology course. It was found that well-designed prompts were essential and that students should be encouraged to reflect on their interaction with artificial intelligence. Three clear issues emerged from the study: the quality of feedback given by the chatbot, the value of the prompt, and the importance of student reflection. The chatbot, ChatGPT, displays the traditional computer characteristic of garbage in, garbage out and gives the feedback it is programmed to give. The dialogue shows how a student can build up mutual rapport with the chatbot when they adapt their responses to the feedback provided. The critical reflection in shows that it is still the user who should oversee the process and evaluate the feedback. It is recommended that novice research students be given some training in reacting to feedback, developing useful prompts, and engaging in meaningful reflection. Future research would include developing a reflective coach.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key characteristics and forms that both research approaches use within the applied field of education. In this paper, we ask--how are CPAR and IS-GR similar and different? And, can tools or propositions from each be used in tandem within a research project? We invite readers to consider useful frameworks created to address problems of practice. Drawing strength from our diverse backgrounds (fields of study and professional roles), we aim to identify clear overlaps and divergent perspectives between the two approaches to aid scholarly practitioners in making informed decisions about the research frameworks they choose to take up to address pressing problems of practice in education.

Purpose: This paper attempts to review and conceptualize how different scholars approach research on teacher identity through the lens of three human interests defined by Jürgen Habermas. Design/Approach/Methods: This literature review, guided by Habermas's three human interests, illustrates the characteristics of three different approaches to the inquiry into teacher identity. Findings: This paper summarizes three approaches to researching teacher identity and their characteristics, namely the technical approach, the practical approach, and the critical approach. The implications for future research and teacher development are also discussed. Originality/Value: By incorporating Habermas's three human interests into teacher identity inquiries, this article offers a theoretical narrative review of the approaches to investigating teacher identity. Strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the possibility of a combined application of different approaches provide an original discussion of teacher identity research.

Although experimental evaluations have been labeled the "gold standard" of evidence for policy (U.S. Department of Education, 2003), evaluations without an analysis of costs are not sufficient for policymaking (Monk, 1995; Ross et al., 2007). Funding organizations now require cost-effectiveness data in most evaluations of effects. Yet, there is little guidance on how to integrate research on costs into efficacy or effectiveness evaluations. As a result, research proposals and papers are disjointed in the treatment of costs, implementation, and effects, and studies often miss opportunities to integrate what is learned from the cost component into what is learned about effectiveness. To address this issue, this paper uses common evaluation frameworks to provide guidance for integrating research on costs into the design of field experiments building on the ingredients method (Levin et al., 2018). The goal is to improve study design, resulting in more cohesive, efficient, and higher-quality evaluations.

Practitioner researchers have much to gain from using stimulated recall, a powerful data collection method whereby structured observations are followed by introspectively focused interviews. The close insider positions that practitioner researchers maintain, however, mean that they are liable to very powerful intuitions. Working under the assumption that intuition can benefit inquiry if it is appropriately managed, this paper offers a theoretical exploration of intuition in practitioner-led stimulated recall studies. In the first section of the paper, a review of extant literature reveals that the expertise of practitioner researchers lends credence to the quality of their intuitions. In the second section of the paper, reflective examples from the authors' own projects illustrate the strengths that intuition can bring to stimulated recall inquiry. Finally, in the third section of the paper, discussions of the dangers of intuition highlight the very real issues that practitioner researchers face when negotiating intuitive thoughts. Two important solutions are presented in the paper: the employment of reflection to appropriately interrogate intuition, and the formulation of sound research principles upon which intuitions can positively emerge. We end the paper by offering our own contribution, the practitioner researcher intuition in stimulated recall model, a tool to support reflection upon emerging intuitions in stimulated recall research.

In this conceptual paper I discuss some ethical complexities in conducting classroom practitioner research on the psychology of language learning and I analyse the potential role of intuition in handling these complexities. I begin by developing the ethical argument for taking a "person-focused" rather than "systems-based" approach to researching the psychology of language learning in the classroom. I make the case that practitioner research lends itself particularly well to a strongly person-focused orientation to exploring psychological perspectives in the classroom, since it is typically motivated by a desire to bring about positive change or enhance the quality of classroom life within a specific teaching and learning community. In the core part of the paper, I focus on the role of intuition in the decision-making processes that practitioner researchers undertake as teachers and researchers. In particular, I discuss some potential ethical complexities in how they navigate their dual roles in the classroom and manage their evolving relational work with students, and I consider the contributions and pitfalls of intuition in handling these ethical complexities. Drawing on the work of Guillemin and Gilham (2004), I argue that both intuitive and reflexive forms of thinking are essential to good ethical practice and decision-making when teachers research their own classrooms.

This study aims to examine the diverse strategies employed in apology and request, investigate the influence of cultural factors, social power, and social distance on these strategies, and explore the existing limitations and gaps in the literature for future research. Data collection is conducted using the qualitative technique. Qualitative content analysis is employed for data analysis. The SLR process provides a structured framework for analyzing various strategies employed in speech acts and investigates the impact of cultural variables and social distance on these strategies. Through the implementation of a predetermined review procedure, a total of 16 papers published between 2018 and 2022 were identified and analyzed. The findings demonstrated that many studies examined apologies and requests using different strategies and sub-strategies. Notably, politeness usage by Indonesian English teachers reflected social power dynamics, while linguistic strategies among Thai students and EFL learners were shaped by social distance. Thai study underscored the importance of cultural immersion, variations among interactants, and teaching factors in pragmatic competence. The PRISMA-guided systematic review effectively synthesized existing literature. The gaps, novel insights, and unresolved issues identified provided a roadmap for researchers to propel the field forward. This systematic review contributed a snapshot of current knowledge, charted a course for future investigations, identified gaps, and leveraged the strengths of systematic approaches.

Background/purpose: Awareness of the mathematical skills and knowledge children possess in their early years is widely accepted. This includes various common positive aspects, not only for educators but also for researchers and policymakers. This study presents a systematic review conducted to meticulously identify empirical studies published in the Scopus-Index Journal database about the mathematical skills children aged 3 to 8 years old have mastered. Materials/methods: This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and the research database comprised of Scopus-indexed journals. The technique followed used "keywords" and Boolean operators. The screening processes included reviewing abstracts, scanning complete texts of published articles, and rejecting those not meeting preset inclusion criteria. Moreover, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and papers not written in English were also excluded. Of the 801 studies initially identified, a total of 15 empirical studies were included in the systematic review. Results: Children master various math skills from a very young age, mainly in "numbers and operations", but face difficulties in skills related to "algebra" as well as "geometry and measurement". Additionally, several preschoolers' characteristics help to explain the acquisition of these skills, with "age" being the primary factor. Researchers use various research instruments and mainly conduct individual semi-structured interviews. Children's geometry skills and knowledge appear to have been studied to a small extent. The areas of "measurement" and "data analysis and probability" were found to be under active investigation. Conclusion: It is worth noting that not only does a noticeable research gap exist for the math domains of "measurement," "geometry," and "data analysis and probability". Factors that seem to affect young children's math skills, such as "gender", "parents' educational level", and "attendance to a preparatory preschool" need further investigation. The implications of the current study's results extend beyond academia, providing valuable insights that educators and policymakers can leverage to enhance the quality of mathematics education during the early years period.

This paper presents a concise review of research articles focusing on Quality Assurance (QA) in Higher Education post-2019. The review encompasses various aspects such as methodologies, frameworks, challenges, and advancements in ensuring educational quality. It synthesizes findings from diverse scholarly works, highlighting emerging trends and key insights. Through this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of QA in higher education, identifying critical areas for further research and policy development.

This paper discusses the conception of a joint intercultural students' research program of one German and two Kyrgyzstani teachers and students from the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany) and the American University of Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). The paper conceptualizes such a research training program and gives reference to qualitative methods teaching in the two corresponding universities. What follows is a description of the chosen research topic: "The 'Intersections' of Gender, Family, and Society in Kyrgyzstan" and the course program. With different academic cultures concerning research ethics in the Anglo-Saxon and continental European contexts, a challenge for such a program will be addressed. A short review of the research results of the different students' teams is provided, and the paper is finalized with a self-reflection upon such a joint intercultural undertaking.

Few biomarker-based validation studies have examined error in online self-report dietary assessment instruments, and food records (FRs) have been considered less than food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) and 24-hour recalls (24HRs). We investigated measurement error in online and paper-based FFQs, online 24HRs, and paper-based FRs in 3 samples drawn primarily from 3 cohorts, comprising 1,393 women and 1,455 men aged 45–86 years. Data collection occurred from January 2011 to October 2013. Attenuation factors and correlation coefficients between reported and true usual intake for energy, protein, sodium, potassium, and respective densities were estimated using recovery biomarkers. Across studies, average attenuation factors for energy were 0.07, 0.07, and 0.19 for a single FFQ, 24HR, and FR, respectively. Correlation coefficients for energy were 0.24, 0.23, and 0.40, respectively. Excluding energy, the average attenuation factors across nutrients and studies were 0.22 for a single FFQ, 0.22 for a single 24HR, and 0.51 for a single FR. Corresponding correlation coefficients were 0.31, 0.34, and 0.53, respectively. For densities (nutrient expressed relative to energy), the average attenuation factors across studies were 0.37, 0.17, and 0.50, respectively. The findings support prior research suggesting different instruments have unique strengths that should be leveraged in epidemiologic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three quarters of a century, international guidelines and regulations have undergone significant changes in how children are problematised as participants in biomedical research. While early guidelines enacted children as vulnerable subjects with diminished autonomy and in need of special protection, beginning in the early 2000s, international regulatory frameworks defined the paediatric population as vulnerable due to unaddressed public health needs. More recently, ethical recommendations have promoted the active engagement of minors as research partners. In this paper, I adopt a post-structuralist approach to policy analysis to examine deep-seated assumptions and presuppositions underlying the changes in the problematisation of children as biomedical research participants over time. While biomedical research ethics focuses on the autonomy and vulnerability of minors, ethical guidelines are situated in specific sociocultural contexts, shaped, among other things, by contingent public health needs and changing conceptions of the value of research and science for society. In the process, I demonstrate the challenge of moving away from an approach that in taking adults as the model overshadows the complexity of children's lived experiences as well as their personal, cultural, and social lives. The lack of acknowledgement of this complexity makes children vulnerable to epistemic injustice, which is particularly crucial to address in public involvement initiatives.

This study comprehensively explores cogenerative dialogue in science education from a sociocultural perspective. Analyzing 120 papers and theses from January 2001 to December 2022 in Korean and English journals, we examine their objectives, themes, methods, learners, educational levels, participants, researcher roles, coteaching connections, and program durations. Our data analysis reveals growing diversity in cogenerative dialogue research objectives and subjects across countries. Consistent patterns emerge regarding researcher roles, participant groups, and program durations. This research offers insights into the evolving cogenerative dialogue landscape in science education, informing future investigations and highlighting trends in this field. The findings presented not only shed light on the current state of research but also provide direction for future investigations, highlighting trends and distinctive features in various facets of cogenerative dialogue-related studies. Specifically, we offer suggestions for the need for research in Korean science education contexts and more broadly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) has been used as a popular research method in various disciplines, including knowledge management (KM). This paper reviews how PLS-SEM has been used in KM studies, which focus on knowledge sharing in the context of virtual community (VC). The review includes 30 articles published from 2007 to 2019. The review discusses the reasons behind the use of the PLS-SEM, data and model characteristics, evaluation of measurement, and structural model in these studies. This paper also provides guidance on how PLS-SEM can be better used and applied in future research.

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This article synthesizes ideas that emerged over the course of a 10-week symposium titled "Teaching Reproducible Research: Educational Outcomes" https://www.projecttier.org/fellowships-and-workshops/2021-spring-symposium that took place in the spring of 2021. The speakers included one linguist, three political scientists, seven psychologists, and three statisticians; about half of them were based in the United States and about half in the United Kingdom. The symposium focused on a particular form of reproducibility--namely computational reproducibility--and the paper begins with an exposition of what computational reproducibility is and how it can be achieved. Drawing on talks by the speakers and comments from participants, the paper then enumerates several reasons for which learning reproducible research methods enhance the education of college and university students; the benefits have partly to do with developing computational skills that prepare students for future education and employment, but they also have to do with their intellectual development more broadly. The article also distills insights from the symposium about practical strategies instructors can adopt to integrate reproducibility into their teaching, as well as to promote the practice among colleagues and throughout departmental curricula. The conceptual framework about the meaning and purposes of teaching reproducibility, and the practical guidance about how to get started, add up to an invitation to instructors to explore the potential for introducing reproducibility in their classes and research supervision.

An editorial is presented on the topic of theory-building process and how the editorial team of Academy of Management Review (AMR) can aid potential AMR authors in writing conceptual articles that will be accepted for publication. An overview of how the demystification process was implemented at AMR is discussed.

A subject of physics includes various complex and sophisticated concepts that pose a challenge for both instructors to teach and students to grasp the clarity in the subject. Many researchers have discussed this challenge toward adopting an appropriate approach to teach physics in the institution. Therefore, the study reviews the research articles towards multimedia in improving the knowledge delivery system of physics published in various standard databases/indexes. The study conducts a literature review based on five-stage methodology comprising of: (1) research article collection from the databases, (2) research article inclusion/exclusion norms, (3) reviewing the processed research articles, (4) analyzing the research articles to extract the information, and (5) inferring the extracted information to derive at the future research direction. The paper contributes to reviewing thirty-three research articles specific to the usage of multimedia towards improving the methodologies involved in teaching and learning physics. The core idea of this study is to extract the research gaps on the usage of multimedia in the current knowledge delivery system of the physics domain to provide future research directions. Further, a bibliometric analysis comprises co-occurrence of keywords, citation, and co-citation using VOSviewer software. It is followed by content analysis to analyze the research method and multimedia tool used. The study outcome shows that most of the existing work found is Quasi-experimental design-based or qualitative design-based. The study outcome also highlights various themes of accepted papers and research gaps on the usage of multimedia in the knowledge delivery system of the physics domain.

Although anthropological methods have been appropriated by qualitative and mixed-methods educational researchers, visual anthropology has had virtually no impact on educational research. Furthermore, video, in general, despite its widespread impact on 21st century culture, has played only a limited role in the conducting of education-related studies, and almost no role in reporting study results. This paper explores what would be gained and lost if researchers began using video in the doing and, especially, in the reporting of their research. The paper uses clips from four author-developed research videos to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages associated with educational researchers "going digital."

This paper reports on a design oriented study conducted in close collaboration between two researchers and three preschool teachers. Within this study, a play-based interview script was designed in accordance with theoretically driven principles. Based on this script, the preschool teachers conducted interviews with children from three preschools five times over four semesters. The focus of this paper is methodological, aiming to show how sensitive divergence in these play-based interviews lead to a strengthened research quality. Of importance is that this quality improving divergence would not have been realized without the close collaboration between researchers and preschool teachers.

This paper aims to explore the philosophical theoretical foundations of two basic research paradigms, namely positivism and interpretivism. In the discussion process, literature in the relevant fields including academic papers and books is reviewed and used as support for the analysis. Firstly, the paper explores the differences between the positivist and interpretivist paradigms in terms of ontology and epistemology. The paper then goes on to critically analyze the shortcomings of interpretivism, including nihilism, susceptibility to bias, and neglect of ideological influences. Finally, this paper adopts the credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability theories to support the interpretivist perspective on research methods, i.e., qualitative research methods, from the educational field. This research will help researchers to better understand the differences between positivist and interpretivist paradigms and to choose the applicable research methods according to the research field.

Research involving and impacting Indigenous Peoples is often of little or no benefit to the communities involved and, in many cases, causes harm. Ensuring that Indigenous research is not only ethical but also of benefit to the communities involved is a long-standing problem that requires fundamental changes in higher education. To address this necessity for change, the authors of this paper, with the help of graduate and Indigenous community research assistants, undertook community consultation across their university to identify the local and national ethical needs of Indigenous researchers, communities, and Elders. This paper provides an overview of the consultation process, the themes that emerged from the consultations, and a model of the Wholistic Indigenous Research Framework that emerged.

This paper describes a content analysis used to examine educational doctoral degrees (EdD) dissertations in a U.S. university. The purpose of the study was to get a better understanding of the validation techniques utilized in dissertations published by EdD students. Forty-nine dissertations were selected and examined for research methodologies, research design, and elements of vigorous validation techniques. The most frequently found methodology was quantitative (n = 30; 61.22%) followed by qualitative (n = 13; 26.53%). Among the quantitative studies, the most frequently used design was survey (n = 18; 60%). The most frequently used design in qualitative studies was case study (n = 6; 12.14%). Validation techniques for quantitative designs were mostly content validity (n = 18; 50.00%). Trustworthiness techniques for qualitative designs were mostly member checking (n = 8; 19.51%). There were no legitimation techniques identified for mixed methods designs. Implications for this study in higher education include EdD doctoral students and committees use at least three techniques for validation purposes.

Advances in technology enabled the development of a web-based, pictorial FFQ to collect parent-report dietary intakes of 7-year-old children in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes study. This study aimed to compare intakes estimated from a paper-FFQ and a web-FFQ and examine the relative validity of both FFQ against 3-d diet records (3DDR). Ninety-two mothers reported food intakes of their 7-year-old child on a paper-FFQ, a web-FFQ and a 3DDR. A usability questionnaire collected participants' feedback on the web-FFQ. Correlations and agreement in energy, nutrients and food groups intakes between the dietary assessments were evaluated using Pearson's correlation, Lin's concordance, Bland–Altman plots, Cohen's κ and tertile classification. The paper- and web-FFQ had good correlations (≥ 0·50) and acceptable-good agreement (Lin's concordance ≥ 0·30; Cohen's κ ≥ 0·41; ≥ 50 % correct and ≤ 10 % misclassification into same or extreme tertiles). Compared with 3DDR, both FFQ showed poor agreement (< 0·30) in assessing absolute intakes except micronutrients (web-FFQ had acceptable-good agreement), but showed acceptable-good ability to classify children into tertiles (κ ≥ 0·21; ≥ 40 % and ≤ 15 % correct or misclassification). Bland–Altman plots suggest good agreement between web-FFQ and 3DDR in assessing micronutrients and several food groups. The web-FFQ was well-received, and majority (81 %) preferred the web-FFQ over the paper-FFQ. The newly developed web-FFQ produced intake estimates comparable to the paper-FFQ, has acceptable-good agreement with 3DDR in assessing absolute micronutrients intakes and has acceptable-good ability to classify children according to categories of intakes. The positive acceptance of the web-FFQ makes it a feasible tool for future dietary data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unique affordances of Action Research, including flexibility, playfulness, accessibility, and a focus on practical problem solving provided crucial strategies for generating knowledge and developing solutions to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The move to online research settings, in particular, required action researchers to find ways to adapt existing research methods and to devise new approaches. This article describes the work of a group of doctoral students in an Educational Leadership program and their instructor in carrying out action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings. If the months of the pandemic have taught us nothing else, it is that flexibility and willingness to innovate, which are central to action research, are valuable assets in times of uncertainty. The unique affordances of Action Research include creativity, playfulness, accessibility to multiple participants and audiences, transferability of findings, and a focus on the generation of knowledge designed to be pragmatic and problem-focused. These qualities can be harnessed to address the multiple challenges we have encountered during the pandemic including health equity and access, poverty and unemployment, and the interruption of education for vulnerable student populations. They also offer us hope that action research can continue to contribute to addressing the challenges we are sure to face in the future. As students in an educational leadership doctoral program, we focus on examining problems of practice in our schools and districts through action research. As we adapted to online learning in our own schools, we were able to bring these skills to bear in our doctoral studies by developing strategies for conducting these action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings. This paper describes some of the approaches we developed in the hope that this will enable other action researchers to implement these methods in their own schools, organizations, and communities. The specific action research methods described in this paper are Future Creating Workshops, Citizens' Juries, World Café, Nominal Group Technique, and Digital Storytelling.

In September of 2020, seven school divisions in Western Manitoba developed a remote learning program to support medically fragile families whose children could not return to classrooms. The coalition of these school divisions, known as the Westman Consortia Partnership (WCP), needed to investigate what beliefs, practices, and strategies were critical to this new rural remote learning program, hence the collaboration with researchers to answer that question. From action research perspectives, this paper unpacks opportunities and challenges researchers faced in pre-, peri-, and post- research contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper explores action research aspects that were both followed and disrupted given the social, cultural, and historical context of the participants in the study.

In the last 40 years in much of the western world dropout rates in higher education have remained almost unchanged. Although student retention seems to be the most studied and discussed aspect, nearly every empirical study on the causes of dropout in higher education and even more the impact of retention actions carried out by universities, in most cases have achieved modest results. This paper argues that this fact finds its explanation, to a certain extent, in the nature of the methodological approaches and factual supports of the empirical studies that most of those actions were based on. In this regard, there are strong arguments and empirical evidence that reveal the deficient nature of the factual basis of the most accepted models, theorizations and measurements on dropout in higher education. Among them are those that underlie the models proposed in 2012 by Vincent Tinto and Adam Seidman, the two main current references on the subject. The most significant questions point to the low reliability of the inferences produced from the application of surveys, especially the national survey of student engagement, very recurrently applied throughout the western world in empirical studies on dropout in higher education.